Exclusive Track Premiere: 'All Through The Night,' Margot & the Nuclear So and So's

Published 11/04/15

RICHARD EDWARDS OF MARGOT & THE NUCLEAR SO AND SO'S. PHOTO COURTESY OF MEGAN EDWARDS.

Ten years after the release of Margot & the Nuclear So and So's debut LP The Dust of Retreat, the band is issuing a limited edition five-LP box set to act as a retrospective as well as a "thank you" to fans. Although the band, which was formed in Indianapolis in 2004, released Sling Shot To Heaven just last year, frontman Richard Edwards considers the compilation one that tells the story of his 20s. Now, at age 31, he looks back on the Margot & the Nuclear So and So's records as a specific era of his life that features a rotating cast of characters—friends who help record and perform his eponymous work—and soon might be over.

Despite anticipation surrounding the box set and its previously unreleased material, the project came about only due to unforeseen—and rather unfortunate—circumstances."During the attempt to promote Sling Shot to Heaven I became very ill," Edwards tells us. "I'd been dealing with long term stomach pain, but it blew up on me all of a sudden." Forced to take a break for nine months, Edwards revisited his band's back catalogue of music, photographs, artwork, writings, and more, where he rediscovered material that's now included with the set.

For example, premiering below is an unreleased cover of Cyndi Lauper's classic "All Through The Night." As a somber and dreamy acoustic take on the track, it will appear on the box set's album Dark Energy in the Spotlight—a collection of rarities from Margot & The Nuclear So and So's circa 2012, during its Rot Gut, Domestic era.

As a retrospective of a band's discography often lends itself to questioning whether or not it's the end of the road, this is something Edwards has thought about, too. "Maybe Margot was supposed to be my 20s," he continues. "I don't want to hold onto something that wants to pass on into another life."

Though this release might signal the peaceful death of Margot, it's not the musical end for Edwards. In December, he will record an album of his own. "I'm not sure if it's a Margot record," the musician explains. "It's what I wrote during the year and half since I got sick following Sling Shot to Heaven." For now, it seems, it's something that has been left up in the air.